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Red Crosses: Sweet is Thy Form

Back when the NPC changes were proposed I wrote a lot
of words. I posted on the forums and was mostly ignored or told I just
wanted to mindlessly do level four missions. I was silly and tried to
point out that I don't do level four missions and that I often do content
harder then level four missions. I poked Hans with an stick and waved my
hands about it. I wrotewords
here, I talked to people and I burnt myself out on the topic because what I
understood of the changes and what most people thought of the changes were very
different. After the dozenth "It will make it more fun,"
response I gave up on my doom saying.

Then the changes
came out and the forums exploded in screaming. All of
the excitement about things being interested mostly vanished.
Ships exploded left and right. The replacement drone market went
crazy. CCP did some rollbacks again and again and again to look at what
was happening and why a simple AI update didn't improve
the experience as much as expected. Mission income dropped.
Fleets were disorganized chaos. Support ships now spent
more time being mown down then DPS ships. Drone ships found their profits
consumed in drone replacement. I sat back collected the tears as missions
did not become fun they became hard.

People adapted.
Some enjoyed the new challenge Many did not. That
is to be expected. Some embrace change and some throw it away and wail so
the initial reactions of 'yes I like' vs 'no I don't like' shouldn't
be too heavily weighted. The salvage materials market has been weird and
shaky. Its' a reflection of a lot of changes (such as more T1 cruisers
everywhere)but it's also a reflection of the fact that salvaging is no longer
as simple as it once was. Now, if simple is good or simple is bad isn't
the path I am wandering down. I don't think that people really sat down
and said, "Hmm, how do most salvagers operate in conjunction to mission
runners? The salvage market is an important aspect of the
Eve economy due to it being the foundation of rigs and the supplier
of meta level modules." I think they changed missions because,
"This will be fun/interesting to challenge more!"

CCP
Ytterbium wrote a post 300 posts into the NPC AI change thread. It is
a very long post worthy of its own Dev blog. I'd have missed it if not
for other sources pulling it out and pointing people to it. 300 posts in
is rather deep. It is worth the read. It discusses that, indeed,
there were problems with the NPC change. Problems that they have been
trying to adjust. Then they explain that they do want to revamp PvE and
turn it into something that aligns better with PvP and stops the great
fit separation.

That separation can
already be bridged by decisions. It's a matter of optimization and
peoples unwillingness to lose it. As someone who flies in PvP
fits for my PvE ships this gap is a choice. I could tank NPCs much better
than I do if I were fit differently. To change NPCs might invalidate a
massive selection of equipment or just give players more of a grind doing the
same thing. It will also not fix risk aversion. It will never fix
risk aversion. It might cause a lifetime mission runner to learn to fit a
disruptor to stop his loot NPC from leaving but it will not cause anyone who
does not want to risk the dangers outside of high security space to
face those dangers voluntarily.

I say more of a
grind because there is a discussion about fewer but harder NPCs. I don't
think this is an interesting change. One of the greatest fun factors in
any video game is owning a massive roomful of enemies in an improbable
situation. I've never sat back, while surrounded by bodies and gone, "I
am poorly satisfied with the surrealistic depiction of my
abilities this situation has placed upon my psyche." No. I cheer
and feel like a badass.

Long grinds to
chew down massive amounts of hit points sucks. That's why
bashing structures sucks so badly. It isn't because they don't
fight back. It is because it takes forever to chew through millions of
hit points and you become bored. The reason so many mission runners
became bored is because they often picked the easiest
platform and sat there in a non-mobile situation.

Conversely, I've
often remained happily engaged because I selected targets, popped
frigates, made decisions, puttered my ship around and engaged in play. With the
changes that have come in the NPCs are smarter. However, because the
player cannot stop the NPCs from doing things by capping them out and such, smarter now sucks in many ways. I guess that can be seen as
a challenge

With their repair rates for shield and armor
chewing away at even some small NPCs is a massive pain. Before, I'd have
Chella work through any frigate tackling Sugar. Now, Chella's drone fleet
isn't enough for some of the higher end frigates. They rep through her damage.
Should I put a drone amplification module on
and destroy the sensibility of both the Sleipnir or Scimitar's
fit to kill a frigate with my drones? Already not optimized against NPC damaged due to being fit for the situation of not being in high sec space the changes made my already harder and risky PvE activities harder and riskier. Again, that cascade effect where a change is looked at for its immediate, face value and not the greater aspects. Again, I adjusted.

As expected, new players in frigates are not welcome in
the bigger complexes. The size to size attack ratio means
that they chase down the frantic Rifter. I hate upshipping
people before they are ready but now it is done just to give them the
necessary tank to sit under full logi reps and get to participate.
So yes, things have changed. I've adapted. Many have and its not been as smooth or
as fun as people expected it to be.

Improving PvE
won't destroy other parts of Eve. It just needs to be improved well and
not in a frustrating manner that is not friendly
or accessible to new players. I've sat out in a belt, unable to
mine, because NPCs had me jammed. Drone aggression eventually kicks in
and they go kill. Drone API is another story and I won't go here.
Still, I've sat for ten minutes while NPC frigates jammed my barge and
orbited me to... nothing happening on either side because jamming ins't damaging. These are silly situations that I have been in since the patch. I'm
puzzled how that type of situation was not seen as incoming.

I fully support a
work over of missions and PvE in general. It's terribly neglected.
PvE matters. Even if people do not want to PvE themselves many will
always wish to. The boring, stagnant nature
is apparent to people only a week or two into the game. It is a
terrible retention issue. People come to the game to fly spaceships.
Many stay to kill other players. That, however, is not a large
enough lure to pull in the numbers the game needs to see to combat the natural sloughing
of bittervets and keep the finical machine happy.

I am happy to see this focus on updating and change. I'm not so much in love with fewer NPCs and more grind. Also, I'll have to remember to keep abreast of the situation. Things like loot drops and salvage will be majorly affected and need to be kept in the forefront of the conversation.

Comments

I was doing L3 missions in 0.5 space easily before, now I can barely do L2 in 0.5 because of the target disruption and new AI, even with a friend they can sometimes be impossible. Oddly I was able to complete a L4 mission in 0.9 alone, but it did take a very long time. No target disrupting though, so I could at least hit the npcs. My weak tech 1 drones don't last either. I can maybe keep them out for a couple of minutes before they start getting attacked, but if they are more than a certain distance away from me then I don't really have a chance to recover all of them before they start exploding.

I had certain concerns about the changes in npc agression mechanics regarding that our previous assault frigate - tier3BC combo wouldn't work well if the room aggro in plex would switch to a damage dealer. We've done post-retribution 8/10 (Pith Penal complex) fairly easy with 2 AFs and a bomber. So, still doable in an old way, the bomber pilots just should keep an eye on the brackets and be wary of their proximity.

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